Search the Community

Piper Aerostar 601p from Durango to parking at Phoenix Sky Harbor John

The wonderful Duke, a classic pressurized twin, soaring high over the Colorado Rockies. My FSEarthtiles photo scenery can be added to P3DV4.4 from Avsim's library in eight downloads... John

A nice ride, the Citation Mustang, flying over California. I call the cumulus "the cleanup crew", it was actually my brother David's name for cumulus after one of Northern California's rainstorms.... John

I found this aircraft that was once used by a flight school I went to in Chandler way back when. It is an Xplane10 aircraft I downloaded from Xplane.org but it did not work in Xplane11. But I have heard some aircraft could be "resurrected" if saved in Planemaker10, then saved in Planemaker11. So I downloaded the Xplane10 demo for the sole purpose of bringing this simple but fun LSA back to life, since there has been no activity from the original developer. The CH 650B S-LSA X-Plane project was a creation of Olivier Faivre and HydroZ in collaboration with Zenair and Zenith Aircraft Co., designers and manufacturers of the CH 650B S-LSA / Experimental aircraft. I wanted to upload the aircraft to Xplane.org but there is a file size limit, and I do not know how to upload aircraft there. Plus I cannot get permission from the developer to upload it because they seem to have gone out of Xplane11 development, although Zenith is still in business. I have flown a real Zenair 601 a couple of times, once in the flight school I mentioned which used VATSIM and Xplane and once in Deland Florida, an experimental model way back, fun aircraft to fly but a little underpowered, a little heavy because it is an all metal LSA. Would it be wrong to upload the aircraft here at Avsim? Actually, would anyone be interested at all, given its simplicity? It does not have an autopilot but can be slaved to Xplane11's autopilot via keyboard commands. My conversion of the aircraft to Xplane11 was completely successful, and having flown the real aircraft I can vouch that the flight dynamics the original designer put into it are very close. If someone does want it, PM me and I will see if I can zip it up and email it, although it is a big file. The aircraft has a simple but fully working 3D panel, sometimes rare for Xplane10 conversions. John Edit: I have uploaded this aircraft to xplane.org, so it can be downloaded if anyone is interested in the designers original work.

I always like to post images of aircraft I have flown in in real life and the places I've flown over when riding in them. My last copter flight was an AS350 Grand Canyon Heli Tour back in 2013, great memory for me... John

The personal airliner of the non kerosene breathers, the Piper Malibu Mirage, able to handle some pretty good city pairs, like Santa Rosa to Santa Ana, or Napa to Reno, or Petaluma to Vegas... I love the way it just floats on landing.... and floats on landing, in ground effect... For just feather light gentle touchdowns.... John

Always loved this "bus with wings" since I flew on it back in 1990 out of O'Hare to Springfield IL and back a couple weeks later. I flew on the 330 going down to Springfield and the nicer looking Short 360 going back to O'Hare. I loved the picture windows view and flying around 8-10,000 feet. I remember the sunlight shining in and the nice warmth it provided, then we descended below the same cloud deck we took off under from O'Hare on our way into Springfield. I took a couple more business trips to Springfield in '94 and '95 and had a funny time with the girls at the front desk, who flirted with me on my first trip to that client in '94 but then heard by their boss that I had been married by my second visit in '95. When I arrived at the front desk they were whispering to each other and I asked them why to which they exclaimed "You are MARRIED now, our boss told us". They were great sports about it and still flirted with me. While I was there I was prepping for a systems class I was going to teach them when I was leaving for a break, only to find out the electronic lock to my training room had frozen and I got locked inside, and there was no end to the teasing as I was trying to get out to use the...uh...facilities. So as a joke, their boss got a plexiglass frame and somehow got a stuffed Garfield the Cat put inside with the quote on the outside of the plexiglass in pressed on letters "To John, who was locked in training room 320...." 25 years later I still have my Plexiglass "award" they gave me. Also when I taught, I would give out quizzes to my students to see what they retained from my classes and to see what they needed refreshers on. One of my classes had some older women who struggled with computers, but one younger guy who knew computers and even thought he knew them better than I did. He made the women nervous by bragging how easy it was to him, much to the anger of me, his instructor. So when it was time to hand out the quizzes, I tricked him with the knowing approval of the older ladies, in on my joke. I gave them quizzes I knew they would ace and I gave him a "special" quiz. They finished up in less than five minutes while he, to his growing frustration, could not even get past the first question. Among the questions I wrote: How many bytes of memory does the application use? What computer language is it coded in? What is the network protocol called? What is the type of cabling used? How many modules are there within the application After he struggled for about ten minutes, growing more and more visibly frustrated as the other students tried to stifle their laughter, I finally asked him "Are you OK, is there something wrong?" To which he said "You did not cover any of this!" I said "but you told all of us you knew the system so well and you shamed my other students", then they broke out laughing when he finally accused them of being in on my personal lesson for him. It worked, whenever the other students struggled, he was first to help them, but I suspect he was the one who sabotaged the lock in my training room later that week, to get even, and I knew I deserved it. Oh, the stories my air and business travel I have had to remember for the past 30 years, the fun of being an aviation nut was having a career as a sky warrior.... Now onto my pics....

I flew this flight in realtime today over my Photo Scenery made with Ortho4XP using SimHeaven's trees. The aircraft is available for download at Xplane.org, I converted it from the original author as is but it certainly flies like a STOL aircraft would and can climb well, even at the Grand Canyon's altitude. It does not move fast, about 80KIAS at 7500 feet, but it flies well, and is a very good hand flyer that can practically parachute in for a landing with its STOL characteristics. John

VSkylabs Ikarus, fun Microlight, and Brett's Raven, "That's So Raven" a fun copter I have flown in real life, at an airshow some years ago in Goodyear AZ. The Raven in these screenshots is shown flying roughly the same route of my flight some years ago... John

Some photoreal, some not, all spectrum's of the flight envelope..... John

Over Edward's AFB and the surroundings.... John

Alabeo's wonderful Cardinal with great avionics, an autopilot (for Xplane11) and the late afternoon light playing on the Nevada high desert. John

I enjoy so much this VSkylabs Gyrocopter for Xplane11, the first simulation of a Gyrocopter I have ever flown, reminds me of Little Nellie of the Bond movie, "You Only Live Twice". Xplane11 allows autogen to be placed over Photoreal scenery and in the wild Sonoran desert around Sedona, it adds to the immersion factor to see the scrub bush below... I wish there was more activity than just myself and a few others here in the screenshots forum. This is the place where we say to the payware and freeware vendors that they have done a good job, keep it up! And we say that to Lockheed Martin and also Laminar, Aerofly and the other sims out there. John

I enjoy flights over the metro area and desert where I live. I also like showcasing both freeware and payware, the VSkylabs Eurofox and the freeware motorized Swift glider found at Xplane.org, a legal Part 103 ultralight. There was one near Tuscon I wanted to see, but at the time I was too heavy to fly it, sad because today I am now the typical 170# pilot--maybe I will find one again some day to fly in the rural areas of Arizona, or to soar, using my fixed wing and ultralight trike training. I have flown the Kitfox, the Eurofox's experimental cousin, near Provo Utah, I flew up in the morning on Southwest from Phoenix, my host and and CFI friend bought me a hamburger at Mickey D's then we went to fly it over the farmland south of Provo lake. Again I was a tad too heavy to fly it with my Phoenix CFI who would have given me lessons in it, in the high Utah altitude we struggled to climb more than 1000 feet AGL, it was the lowest I have ever flown an aircraft, as I flew it I did lazy circles over the lake and farmland, I was in heaven when I flew home from SLC later that evening as dusk was falling. SLC is my favorite airport given its juxtaposition to the Wasatch range and views of downtown Salt Lake and the views of Salt Lake itself when you climb out, and finally the views over the Grand Canyon and of Sedona on the descent towards Phoenix. John

Flying an Ercoupe, like I did near Denison Texas into Oklahoma, is interesting without rudder pedals. You steer with the yoke on the ground like a car, kind of strange, and you crab like a rudder equipped aircraft if there is a crosswind component, the Ercoupe will straighten out on touchdown. It is the only classic aircraft I flew from takeoff to touchdown although it landed like a brick, because we were overweight and density altitude was high the day I flew it. It had to be coaxed to gain altitude but once trimmed for cruise it was fine to fly, an it is the only aircraft I ever flew across any state lines. John

Found this nice little copter at Xplane.org, I've always wanted to have a Eurocopter to Fly for Xplane11, it appeared in the new downloads section. The last copter I've ever flown in was a Eurocopter AS350 on a Vegas - Grand Canyon flight John

The dream of a personal air vehicle to commute to work, me commuting out of Casa Grande towards the Phoenix metro area in the Mini-500, over my homespun OrthoXP scenery. Simming hardly gets more fun than this! John

Enjoying a tour in my personal air vehicle, the VSkylabs Mini 500 for Xplane11. This copter is even equipped with their autopilot for Microlights which holds the altitude and heading during cruise flight. It's a wonderful low speed platform for VFR photo scenery flight or autogen flight too. I love Xplane11's modeling of rotor craft such as gyros, copters and large manned drones such as an odd freeware drone I found in the .org. Also there are some good blimp models, albeit with 2d panels, still fun to fly around with. John

Love the VSkyLabs LongEZ for its visibility, like a sailplane in flight....